Knock out hit

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2019)

Pacific Rim is a surprisingly good monster movie with real plot lines that drive the movie to success. PR is way better than any Godzilla flic because it weaves an actual story involving people, not just cardboard characters that bring nothing to the story.
Some time in the future, Kaiju (Japanese for Beasts) start to emerge from a breach in the tectonic plates under the Pacific ocean. Humans end up creating Jaegers (German for Hunter), huge robot fighting machines, to stop the Kaiju. These robots are massive - tall as skyscrapers, and weigh thousands of tons.
The story pulls you in because the world is under siege and countries actually cooperate with each other for self survival. Your interest starts at the country level, while director Del Toro quickly brings it down to a level you can better identify with - the one-on-one type. You learn about a Jaeger pilot, Raleigh (played by unknown Charlie Hunnam), and his brother. These Jaegers require two pilots to operate them, left brain/right brain, because the neural stress is too much for one person. These brother pilots go out on a hunt and things go bad. There's a terrific fight scene in Alaska with a beach scene that introduces you to the sacrifices these people make to save the world. The story then pulls you in and never lets go.
Raleigh gives up piloting and takes up construction to help build a wall that no one believes can stop these monsters, but he withdraws from the world. Until we then meet Commander Stacker, played masterfully by Idris Elba - he was terrific. The story then goes all over the world, from New York to California, to England, to Hong Kong. Other interesting characters come into play, led by Mako (Rinko Kikuchi - actually a pretty well-established actress). Two crazy scientists, a con/Kaiju parts dealer (Ron Perlman is excellent), and internal adversaries join the excellent cast.
Casting was terrific. Raleigh and Mako have great chemistry on screen. Cmdr Stacker exudes leadership. Crazy scientists excude wild abandon in search of science. Bad guys are heartless. In the end, internal adversaries bond together, and it was all terrifically believable due to the casting. The acting was also top notch. All actors gave strong performances in their roles.
The cinematography was uneven, mostly due to lighting. As Jaegers and Kaiju did battle in various scenes, just like the Transformer movies, it was often hard to tell who was doing what to whom because of the darkness. Smashing battles in the city were easier, and monsters spewing colored venom helped, but that's my major issue with the movie. Better lighting definition would have drawn me in more to the fight scenes, which were numerous.
By far the best part of the movie, after the excellent storyline, was the CGI. The robot hunters were very realistic. The computer control rooms were very realistic, as were the graphics used by the Jaeger pilots in their control room. You never felt the monstors or robots were out of scale to themselves or their surroundings, which is often an issue with cheaper CGI films, like the old Godzilla vs Mothra type movies. The monsters were really well done too. You could tell that the fight scenes took a lot time and care to make them very realistic.
Pacific Rim succeeds on every level, while throwing in a cliche here and there, and your expected Hollywood ending. You'll feel happy, sad, happy/sad, and relate to these poor people fighting for their lives against all odds. Story, acting, casting, directing, CGI, oh, and the music too, which strongly supported the story. All were great.
PR is a must-see film for monster-movie enthusiasts and general film lovers alike. Enjoy.